


to take root

by azurill



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-23 05:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20237224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurill/pseuds/azurill
Summary: Her eyes sting. It's easier to blame it on the dust than on anything else.





	to take root

All clinics smell and look the same, from the one back in Boston when she was eleven and had a hell of a fever to the one in Jackson, with its rows of beds covered in pale sheets and curtains that sway with every small current of air. She swears she sees a glimpse of Riley somewhere along the corridors and Ellie blinks hard enough to see stars bursting inside her eyelids, apologizing for not hearing her name being called until the fifth time Dina had mentioned it.

It's strange to be stuck with a stranger _– _a very talkative one, but a stranger nonetheless – but Dina doesn't act much like one. She even makes puns, good ones that Ellie's never heard before. And she's read a _lot_ of books about puns. “You don't need to do this because Tommy told you to," Ellie comments as Dina stops their walk to the stables to pluck off yellowed leaves out of the base of a plant that almost reaches Ellie’s chin, going on and on about plants and the weather and _the horses – Ellie, you wouldn’t believe how cute they are _–

She pauses her speech, crinkles her nose at being interrupted, at Ellie assuming that she wasn’t enjoying being trusted with the task of showing the new girl around by the town leader himself, or one of them. She isn't sure yet. "I'm not doing this because of him,” Dina replies, curt and brief enough for Ellie to not question it again in fear of embarrassing herself. “Seriously. I didn’t get to see you when you visited last fall."

"_Visiting_ is a weird description of what actually happened."

Dina tucks a few stray curls behind an ear, laughing to herself. "To ensure all I heard wasn't just lies, are you, like, really talented with a gun? Jackie also said you were 'real cute'. I'll decide when you take a shower."

"Wow. That's rude. Even for you."

"Even for _me_?" she tilts her head with a grin that widens when Ellie shows a small smile in response and touches a small dimple on Ellie's cheek with her index finger. "And she shows her fangs."

Her attempt at opening the stable door is confident but laughable at best, amusing Ellie when it doesn't even budge. The door opens not soon after and Dina introduces the man in front of them as Matthew, Matt for short. She expects Dina's brother to be as loud as she is, but he is quick to avert the attention from himself to a horse in particular, small and standing on wobbling legs as it feeds from a bottle held by a girl with the lightest hair she's ever seen. Ellie extends her hand to pet its muzzle, curving her body on a wooden fence to reach it. Dina joins in with the petting. "You seem to like them."

She winces at the memory of Callus, of the wetness on her hands when he munched on the snacks she found and the muffled sound as he galloped on the snow, only noticeable when everything was dead quiet. Maybe it would be for the best if someone would burst in and said they need her to shoot something than to stay where she is, spending time around people who talk to her instead of trying to kill her so they can steal her useless shit after she's dead. "I like them," she answers, somewhat dulled before retreating back to safe ground, a pain settling on her ribs where the fence dug in.

"Good. We need help around."

"Julia," Matthew nervously calls in a way Ellie's sure he's done plenty of times.

She stares back at him, "What? We're overworked."

"Ellie will decide once she settles in," Dina spells slowly before she links their arms together, throwing themselves once again on the path to another important building. The more Dina shows her around, the more she realizes that Jackson is not the same as out there. Raising crops and livestock are more important than guns if you want to survive and skills she thought to be meaningless – like sewing because _what good could sewing do when you have thirty clickers running after you? _– have an important place in the small community these people built for themselves. She's impressed with how much Dina knows, from hunting to cooking to killing to finding the balance between over and underwatering a plant.

"How long have you been here?"

"A few months."

Ellie thinks back about her argument with Joel earlier that day, where she claimed that she could and _would_ survive by herself if she had to. She still thinks she could survive, but maybe he meant this whole thing where you get to sleep in a bed and where you don't need to scavenge or hunt for food that may or may not always be available. Things that Dina knows about, not her.

"And you already knew all that stuff?"

"We used to live somewhere else," she shrugs the question away, dismissing an answer before she even finishes it. "Everyone has a sob story, I guess. I don't think there's anyone that lives in this world and, you know –"

She knows the feeling all too well. "I get what you mean."

The hours blur into each other until the sunlight touches her face softer than it did the whole afternoon, until she's in front of her home that doesn't feel like one. Ellie kicks a rock as she walks and wonders if Dina felt strange about her home, too.

It feels too out of place to ask, so she doesn't.

//

"They're too heavy for you."

"They're not. What am I, five?" Ellie snorts and Joel lets her to carry some wood planks, although he insists on carrying more of them than a human should be allowed to. After some trips up and down the stairs, it's clear that he wasn't lying, they _are_ heavy. The fact he isn't a complete liar should be a source of comfort, but when all is said and done and she swears he looks the happiest she's ever seen him be, it's hard not to feel a little bitter at how good he is at pretending everything is the same.

(A brief talk with Marlene, flashes of light invading her eyelids, the beeping – she remembers the fucking beeping, especially – then voices, gunshots, every sense numb, suspended in the air.)

"So," Joel starts after a moment's silence. "What do you think?"

"About..." he waves a hand around, stirring more than a few specks of dust. "It's, ah," Ellie smacks her lips together. "Different."

Joel resumes his talking with a lower, melancholic drawl.

_You have a home, Ellie. _

Her eyes sting. It's easier to blame it on the dust than on anything else.

**Author's Note:**

> if i have to look at this ever again i will eat a brick


End file.
